


watch them grow in the space between stars

by captainharkness



Series: an ode to the wild ones [1]
Category: Jurassic Park (Movies), Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dinosaur-centric, Gen, Pre-Canon, and everyone just makes one liners, i only wanted to write the sequel to this but i wanted to set it up properly, please forgive me god, there is no overruling plot line, this is increasingly less of an actual novel and more like the premise to a sit com
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-11
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-05-01 02:16:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5188340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainharkness/pseuds/captainharkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Canon divergence pre-Jurassic World: To avoid the unfortunate events of Jurassic Park reoccurring, a plan was devised to ensure that the dinosaurs never saw humans as a food source; assign all assets a 'handler', a specially trained human partner to raise, teach and train them. Claire Dearing has never aimed for anything less than the best, which is probably why she was assigned to care for the park's tyrannosaurus rex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Little one, how do I care for you?

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is going to be a ten-part fic, the first of three in this series, that will go all the way from 2003 to after the film. Possibly very far, depending on how I get on with it. I don't have much of a time frame, but I'm writing this for NaNoWriMo, so November is going to be update heavy.
> 
> Dedicated to Becky, who also loves dinosaurs.

_**2003 - 24 months until Jurassic World opens** _

She was a tiny thing with wide eyes, too large for her head, and claws that caught on clothes and skin. Less than a foot tall when she burst through her shell, but they all eyed her carefully; 65 million years of notoriety carried a lot of weight, and a few of the scientists had been around when John Hammond had first opened Jurassic Park. Even as she took her first breaths free of her egg, the tyrannosaurus rex was already a cause for concern.

Masrani and inGen called them ‘siblings’; specially trained handlers that would hand raise the assets from hatching in the hope that the ‘human touch’ would avert any future crisis, like the one in the first park. The idea that the dinosaurs could become accustomed to human interaction to the point where they no longer viewed them as food was, as many had speculated, a pipe dream, but the results of the seven herbivores that were already alive had been so successful, investors had pushed for a carnivore trial.

“What will you name her?” one of the scientists mused quietly as Claire watched her new charge stretch lazily under a heat lamp.

“Nothing, yet,” she replied, “None of the others have made it past infanthood, I shouldn’t get too attached.”

The t-rex gave a pitiful screech, as if insulted at the insinuation that she would be too weak to live past a few weeks, and Claire smirked.

_******* _

Two months passed and the still as-yet unnamed dinosaur remained fighting fit. The only one of her species to make it out of the lab and into her own paddock, Subject 0547 had taken to life as a theme park attraction with enthusiasm.

Jurassic World was not officially open; not enough actual dinosaurs to warrant the expenditure, but the progress of the animals was broadcast online. 0547 was a fan-favourite, people offering donations and suggesting names on a daily basis. Claire had never voiced her beliefs, but she was almost positive the dinosaur actually enjoyed the cameras. She never listened to commands unless they were there, either way.

“C’mon, eyes on me,” Claire spoke a little louder, drawing her charge’s attention towards her. She had a stun baton in one hand and a clicker in the other. 0547 had a reinforced muzzle on - even as a youngster, she had enough power in her jaw to break bone - and there were people with stun guns surrounding the paddock, but no one wanted to take any chances. “And… we’re walking…”

Claire took a few steps back, the dinosaur following her cautiously. She was little taller than a large dog, senses keen and claws sharp. Claire took immense pride in the fact that she never forgot what she dealing with when she stepped into the paddock.

Someone to the side took a photograph, the shutter sound making both Claire and 0547 turn around, the latter’s interest immediately shifted.

“For fuck’s sake,” Claire muttered as her dinosaur preened.

_******* _

All the dinosaurs at Jurassic World were bred specifically to reach their full growth in half the time it would take naturally. By the time she reached eight months, 0547 was already two meters long.

Claire remembered hearing her mother complain about how quickly her daughters grew, and how often she had to buy new clothes to fit them. It wasn’t something that she’d ever really considered until the tyrannosaurus rex started to outgrow her paddocks. It seemed that every few weeks, new construction work was being done to accommodate the ever-growing creature. Except, unlike Claire and her sister’s annoying habit of outgrowing trousers one leg at a time, 0547 had taken to trying to climb out of her enclosures.

The dinosaur in question thumped against the side of the holding pen she was staying in until the improvements to her paddock were complete.

“Manners,” she reprimanded absently, banging her palm against the cage panel. With little else to do until 0547 could be put back in her usual enclosure, Claire had taken an early, and hopefully, extended, lunch. “It’s veggie-burger. You wouldn’t want it.”

0547 growled, returning to pacing the perimeter of the smaller pen. As she got bigger and bigger, moving her from pen to pen was getting more and more complicated. There was little way to test just how much sedative any of the assets could take before it started affecting their health without actually endangering their lives, so the teams in charge of transporting any of the animals always tried to keep the doses low. That being said, as with any drug, there was a come down period, and the t-rex was always grumpy when she was getting shifted around.

“Claire, right?”

Claire glanced up, one of the workmen walking towards her, “Yes?”

“I don’t know if you’ve been told, but your dinosaur’s getting a new home.”

She blinked in surprise. Even as one of the senior members of the handling team, Claire wasn’t often kept as in the loop as she would have liked, but any decisions about her animal were usually run by her, “Excuse me?”

“Should be complete within the month,” the workman shrugged, “but she’s getting moved to her permanent paddock, for when the park opens. Nice big one. Big enough that she can stay in it when she’s fully grown.”

The thought of moving 0547 from her enclosed pen in the nursery to what would eventually become her home filled Claire with a strange sensation, something oddly akin to loss, like moving her into the soon-to-be public eye would be like sending a child off to college across the country. The fact that, despite her best efforts, she’d grown to actually care for the asset hit Claire like a brick, and it took a few seconds for her to form a response.

“That’s… uh, fantastic,” she ground out, “Where is she being kept in the meantime?”

“Well, Masrani wants to move the two condorraptors in your one’s old pen until their permanent enclosure is complete, something about the t-rex growing at a faster rate, so she’s just going to have to stay in there until construction is finished-”

“Wait, what?”

He shrugged apologetically, “Yeah, they said you wouldn’t like that.”

Claire bit back a retort and leaned back against the concrete wall of the pen - her hair was in a ponytail and she knew all too well how much 0547 loved to grab onto things - and tried to consider the bigger picture, rather than how unhappy her dinosaur looked butting against the side of the too-small pen.

 

 


	2. Feed you from my soul and wipe away the blood;

_**2004 - 11 months until Jurassic World opens** _

It had been around the same time that Claire’s t-rex had moved into her own permanent enclosure that Claire had also gotten her own home. All the employees that stayed on the island on a permanent basis were given apartments as part of the job package. Unfortunately, the park hadn’t been built when the first dinosaurs were hatched, so Claire had spent the first year of her job living in a trailer.

The employee apartment building was kept mostly off-site, on the other side of the park to the nursery, near where the hotel would eventually be. It was small but clean, almost spacious, all things considered, the open plan kitchen-living room filled with natural light, decorated in plain colours, ready to be given personality. It had been a long time since anyone had accused Claire of having personality, and she tried not to think about it as she moved her measly belongings in.

She adorned it with a few things to make it her own, a picture of her and Karen on her 21st birthday, the dream catcher Zach had made for her at school the year before, a few knick knacks from over the years. It was still startling bare, clean and institutional.

“What are you staring longingly at?”

She jumped, gritting her teeth as Lowery skulked towards her. His penchant for graphic t-shirts and soda made her think of her college years, something she was trying to leave behind in lieu of an actual career. He lived in the apartment below her, and had an appalling taste in music, which he seemed to explore most freely in the early hours of the morning.

“I’m not staring at anything, I was thinking.”

Lowery quirked an eyebrow at her, eyes flicking between her and the glass window into the  enclosure, “You’re just hanging out in the t-rex observation room for kicks?”

“As I said,” she repeated a little louder, “I was thinking. And even if I was staring aimlessly, why not here? It’s not like anywhere else is actually fully built.”

Lowery snorted but didn’t say anything else, just joined her in watching the leaves on the trees rustle, hearing the animal huff and grunt. Claire liked to put the sound system on, the one that, when the park would open, would let guests hear inside the enclosures.

After a few moments, Lowery interrupted their near silence again,  “Do you still get in there with her?”

Claire shook her head, “No. No one’s allowed in the pen unless she’s sedated now, she’s too big. I do my work from the sky walk.” The metal walkway that extended over the top of the pen meant Claire could get almost into the paddock with the tyrannosaurus, just out of the way of her teeth and claws and tail. It wasn’t the same as working with her face-to-face, though. There wasn’t the same rush.

Glancing over at him, Claire asked, “Why? Do you want to get in there?”

0547 took the opportunity to let out a deafening roar. Wincing, she turned the volume down on the speakers - they probably would have heard it well enough without the sound system - just in time to hear the audible swallow come from the technician.

“No,” he muttered, clearing his throat, “I’m good.”

_******* _

It was only seven weeks until the park opened to the public for the first time; construction was all but complete, most of the exhibits were fully functioning and inhabited by their respective animals, and the island was teeming with staff that, despite most of them not having an actual work to do until visitors started arriving, seemingly never stopped working.

Claire, just one in the growing team of handlers, had been up to her eyes in planning and routines for when Jurassic World went live, but since she was only in charge of a single dinosaur, she’d been ordered to assist her coworkers with their own workload. On top of that, the apartment building that had been specially designed for employees to be safe and secure had hit its first bump in the road when an ‘unidentified herbivore’ accidentally knocked over a power line and cut the AC. Central America was hot on a good day, but in a thick-walled, sound-proofed apartment, it was insufferable.

Like most other people, Claire had sought refuge in the staff room, in the top floor of the innovation center. Two of the avian handlers, Hana and Sam, were late for their end-of-month reports, and as was common practice among the handlers, Claire was helping them come up with plausible lies to put in them to get them down to the lab quickly.

Hana sighed, flexing her fingers, “I don’t know why they think I could even comment on any of these things.” When Claire made a questioning noise, she continued, “The section about the enclosure? Is it stable enough, is it suitable, are there any weaknesses… I have a degree in biochem, not structural engineering.”

Claire nodded empathetically, “Just… have any of them tried to escape?”

“Dina,” Hana and Sam said simultaneously.

She raised an eyebrow, “Repeat offender?”

“Pain in the ass,” Hana corrected, “Dina is short for Houdini. She managed to break out of the lab when she was a week old.”

“Doesn’t matter anyway,” Sam dismissed, rubbing at his eyes, “They’re animals. They’d all try and escape if you gave them a chance.”

Hana rolled her eyes at his cynicism, “Maybe that’s what we should report. ‘Assets probably could escape if they wanted to but as long as we keep them docile and happy with food and the illusion of freedom, we should be okay’. I’m sure Masrani would love that.” Claire laughed while Sam gave her a filthy look.

“Screw you both,” he muttered, shutting his laptop lid, “I have to go anyway. I’m supposed to be doing recall training with one of the dimorphodon.”

Hana gave him a pitying look, “Who’re you taking out?”

He shrugged, “Probably Grumpy.”

“Wear gloves,” she advised, waving him goodbye. When she caught Claire’s confused stare, she explained, “She isn’t really called Grumpy. It’s just a nickname, she’s actually called Anya. Nico named her after his mother-in-law.”

“Charming,” Claire snorted, “Recall training?”

“Yeah, we take one or two of them into the old nursery aviary, leash them and practice flying them out and calling them back in,” Hana explained, “Marketing suggested it, I think they want to start doing live shows when we get good enough. It’s only with the dimorphodons, though. The pteranodon are way too aggressive, and too big.”

Claire’s fingers hesitated over the keys of her laptop, “Yeah.”

If Hana noticed Claire’s lapse, she didn’t show it, “Do you miss it?”

“Hmm?”

“Getting in there,” Hana pressed, “Getting close. Standing in front of a dinosaur and being able to walk away.”

“Not really.”

_******* _

The thick smell of blood made her throat tight, overpowering and sickly. As a vegetarian, Claire was a little more sensitive to the feeding of the carnivores, but at least she didn’t have to use live food. The bucket was filled with off-cuts of meat from the mainland, and even before Claire had pushed the button to start to lower the walkway - in a few months, she was sure she wouldn’t need to, but for now, the t-rex was small enough - she could hear the sounds of an approaching animal.

“Hello, you,” she said softly, stopping a few meters above the dinosaur.

She received a low growl in return.

Claire paused for a second, before throwing in a scrap of meat, “Go on, just one before you get to work.”

It vanished quickly amid some what Claire had come to recognise as content noises.

“I should probably name you,” she said, “It really has been a while, hasn’t it?”

Her charge seemed fit to ignore her, instead staring up in anticipation for what she knew would be more food. She doubted that the animal cared at all for Claire’s reasons for not naming her - primarily, what truly fitting name could anyone give a prehistoric killing machine? - but she seemed happy to pretend to listen if it meant getting fed.

Holding a piece of meat up for her to see, Claire walked slowly along the walkway, “Follow.”

The tyrannosaurus slowly meandered, one stride enough to equal three of Claire’s, below the bridge, eyes never leaving the beef in her handler’s grasp.

“And… up!”

Obediently, the animal stretched up on her hindquarters, an impressive feat for something of her size, especially given that her species was not one renown for their agility or grace.

Claire beamed, “Good girl, well done.” She threw the meat in.

0547 made a growling noise in the back of her throat, quickly swallowing the given treat

0547\. Claire remembered the way Sam and Hana talked about their charges, the kind of fond annoyance that had inspired the late night trip to paddock nine in the first place. She imagined them sitting around the staff room, laughing as they named their animals, recalling their antics and their quirks. She’d spent so long trying to remain distant from the creature in her care that Claire had forgotten why it felt so nice to be close. And instead, she’d filled her free time with paperwork.

A random quote, some cheap graphic cooked up on a bad design program that had filtered into way into her browser history one day came to the forefront of her mind, and Claire almost laughed at how fitting it was.

Below her, Alice gave an irritated growl, as if her handler’s lack of attention was some personal insult, and Claire threw in another few bits to placate her, a smile on her face.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The quote that Claire drew her inspiration from is "I can run the country or I can attend to Alice, I cannot do both." It is by Teddy Roosevelt in reference to his daughter after a foreign dignitary caught her smoking on the roof of the White House.
> 
> Also, this fic may seem a little OC heavy from now on, but since it is set before most of the main characters in the film become relevant to the plot, it'd seem a little 2D without them.


	3. With so little to give a planet that burns anew

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for mild description of dinosaur related wounds. It's not too graphic or gnarly, but just in case.
> 
> This is written in a much less disjointed style than the other chapters, possibly because there is actually plot stuff happening, if an incredibly small amount. I have no idea what the rest will look like, I wrote most of this at about 5am having not slept for two days. Hope you still enjoy it!

_**March 2005** _

Alice exhaled heavily, steaming up the window into the observation room as Claire absently traced the outlines of her thick, grey-green skin from the other side of the glass. She just about came up to the window, having gone on a growth spurt over the Winter, and seemed to spend the better part of her time peering in.

“Okay, that’s fantastic, thank you,” Claire said, palm flat against the glass, phone pressed between her ear and shoulder, “No, it’s great, thank you. I’ll see you in June. Bye, bye.”

She hung up, allowing herself to stretch her legs out in front of her. Waking up at 5am to take a call from the animal psychology professor at King’s College wasn’t Claire’s ideal way to start the day, but at least it meant she’d done something productive. Doctor Walker’s Masters class were due to arrive in June to study Alice’s behaviour in correlation to that of other lone predators born in captivity, including other dinosaurs at the park. Masrani had sent her a memo ‘suggesting’ that she get in contact with them about the two week study, and had personally offered a hefty discount on their visit if they accepted.

_“It’s a great opportunity, Claire,” he had told her when she phoned him to tell him the class were considering the option, “King’s College is a highly reputable university. This will certainly add a weight to the claims of our laboratory, and our investors can hardly ignore such an accommodation.”_

Claire was one of the few people to know that the real reason Masrani wanted the class in so badly was because the professor had agreed to allow him to sit in on the lessons.

A week before Jurassic World opened it’s doors to the public, Claire had received a promotion; no longer was she a simple handler, but an Asset Manager. So far, the only difference she had noticed was that she answered more phone calls and signed off on forms rather than filling them in, but it was a bump in pay and a step higher on the ladder, so she wasn’t going to complain.

Alice grunted, making the glass vibrate as she did, before she stalked away behind the trees. Her exhibit didn’t open for another four hours, as which point endless guests would come wandering through to watch her stomp and rear her head and tear into goats. Three times a day, Claire would get up on the skywalk and show everyone how clever her girl was, but before then, she needed a cup of coffee.

The park was blissfully quiet as she made her way through the plaza, back to her apartment. A lot of the restaurants were open 24/7, some of the attractions had midnight tours, and quite a few guests likes the visit the beaches during the evenings, so Jurassic World was never really _empty_ , but Claire was glad for the lack of screeching children on her early morning excursion.

She’d barely made it halfway before her phone rung again. Sighing, she checked it, to find Caroline Sidle, the senior handler for the ankylosaurus ringing her.

“This is Claire.”

“Morning, I didn’t wake you, did I?” came the peppy reply. Caroline and her two team mates, Sally Sheffield and Valerie Mathers, were three of the most over-enthusiastic, optimistic women Claire had ever met. They grew up in Montana together, went to college together, and all applied for jobs at Jurassic World at the same time. They were the sort of incredibly sweet, friendly, well-meaning people that never failed to come through for anyone, and if she didn’t know them, Claire would have suspected they were characters in a fem-lit book.

“No, I had to take a call from London anyway, what’s up?”

“Well, you were going to get a call anyway, so I figured I might as well get in early, that way you can hurry down to the staff room and get first dibs on the coffee,” Caroline explained, and Claire nearly kissed the phone, “Masrani _finally_ hired someone to run the raptor program, and according to Val, he is gorgeous.”

Claire couldn’t stop herself smiling, “And, what does this have to do with me?”

“He’s coming in today,” Caroline said, her wide smile almost audible, “in about… fifteen minutes. Management wants him to meet the rest of the handlers before he settles in.” Claire chuckled, and Caroline laughed back in return, “Fresh coffee and first eyes on the new meat, c’mon Claire, never say I never do anything for you.”

***

Claire made it up to the staff room in record time, and Caroline pushed an already poured cup of steaming hot coffee into her hands, moved her bag off the seat on the sofa to let her sit down and together, they put their feet up on the table.

Apparently, management hadn’t made the wake up calls yet, since there was only five of them in; Claire, Caroline and Valerie, as well as Kara, another of the aviary team, and Lowery.

Claire shot him a confused look, which he barely caught with his head rested on the dining table, “What are you doing in here?”

He mumbled something in response that she didn’t quite catch, and Kara smiled sympathetically.

“One of the systems went down and nearly shut down the security in the West plains,” she explained, “He’s been up all night trying to get it back online. He actually only just woke up, security says he’s been asleep here since about three.”

The staff room at Jurassic World always reminded Claire a little of her college library; open at all hours, there was a near guarantee that some poor sleep-deprived soul would be operating the coffee machine with their head against the cabinet door at any given time, there was a near infinite supply of snack food that no one quite knew the source of and the comfiest seats were strictly first-come-first-serve, regardless of your place on the career ladder. It was common ground, and the one thing that all staff members had in common - handlers, tech team, ACU, security, catering - was the understanding that both dinosaurs and guests were high maintenance creatures; both would plow through the park without care for anyone else, including their need to eat and sleep at normal times.

“Poor thing,” Valerie sighed, looking at the semi-conscious control station worker like she wanted to wrap him in a blanket.

Claire nodded, taking a healthy mouthful of coffee just as Masrani burst into the room, followed by another man. The CEO of Jurassic World stood tall and straight in one of his usual suits, power and self-importance leaking from his every pore, but somehow, the man behind still managed to look bigger than him. Even in board shorts with his sunglasses pushed up on his forehead, hands in his pockets and an easy smile on his face, he commanded the space around him like he owned the place.

“Everyone,” Masrani announced, “This is Owen Grady. He will be heading up our velociraptor program.”

There was a decidedly unenthusiastic and sleepy murmur of “hello Owen” from everyone, and the man in question gave a short wave.

Masrani made an uncomfortable noise in the back of his throat before continuing a little louder than before, “Mr Grady transferred from the Navy, we’re very lucky to have such a man working on our team. I hope you will all make him feel welcome.” The unspoken threat was heard loud and clear; everyone knew Masrani wasn’t above flexing his power over the workforce if anyone jeopardised his park, usually in some creative yet still legal way.

Valerie leaned in closer, “Laura in Finance says that he’s ex-SEALs.”

“Maybe he fancied a change,” Caroline suggested.

“Yeah,” Claire agreed sarcastically, “Or, maybe, he wanted a job that could guarantee his safety.”

Caroline snorted, making Masrani glance over at the couch, but she turned it into a cough.

“Well, I have some more business to attend to,” he said briskly, “so if one of you wouldn’t mind giving Mr Grady a tour of the place and helping him get settled in, that’d be fantastic.”

The five of them all glanced at each other, given the early hour, all reluctant to traipse around the facility. Lowery was in no fit state to find his way back to his own apartment, nevermind find anyone else’s. Claire knew that Caroline was due on the first boat off the island, and Kara was looking at her with desperate “ _don’t make me do it_ ” eyes, so she sighed inwardly and stood up.

“Sure, no problem.”

“Excellent,” Masrani beamed, clapping his hands together, “Mr Grady, I’ll leave you in Claire’s capable hands,” Just in the corner of her vision, Claire saw Valerie waggled her eyebrows at Caroline, who snorted into her coffee, “Everyone, good day.”

***

Everyone had departed to their respective duties fairly soon after that, leaving Claire to try and navigate the impossibly complicated employee database - a feat that Lowery would have managed with a blindfold on if he could stand - to print out Owen’s file.

“So,” he started, milling around the printer, “is this the bit where you tell me all about the little known secrets among us handlers? Are there cliques? Do we lie to our bosses to cover each other’s back?”

Claire rolled her eyes as she stapled the pages of his employee handbook together. Pressing it into his hands, she replied, “If you’re asking if there’s any infighting, no. Do people tend to hang out with their own teammates? Some of them, yes.”

“So, do you?”

“Me?” He followed her down the corridor as she did a mental checklist of everything; he’d signed all the documents that needed filing, they’d picked up his apartment keys from HER and he was carrying the twenty-three page handbook that absolutely no one read, which just left actually showing him around and hopefully, depositing him in his apartment so she could catch a nap before work, “I don’t have a team. I’m in charge of the t-rex, but since she’s such a non-interactive asset, they only really need one person.”

“You work with the tyrannosaurus?” he asked, right behind her, “That’s fucking awesome.”

Claire smiled to herself, “I’ll tell her you said so.”

***

Owen responded to every aspect of the park with the same level of enthusiasm as the average small child - she practically had to drag him away from the nursery - so by the time they got back to the apartment building, he was vibrating in his skin and she wanted to pass out. There was only two hours before she had to get up and do Alice’s first show, and she’d only had one cup of coffee.

When he saw the inside of his new home, he pulled a face, “Jesus, bit bland, isn’t it?”

“You’re welcome to redecorate,” she said, handing his keys up next to the front door, “I believe there’s a page or two about what you can and cannot do to it in your handbook.”

Owen gave the mound of paper a disparaging look, “I’ll get right on that.”

Ignoring the childish pout, she rolled her eyes and checked the time, “Right, I need to go, and actually get some sleep before the first show. If you need anything, ask around. Someone will take pity on you-”

“Wait, you do a show?”

Claire blinked, “Yeah, a lot of us do.”

“ _With_ the t-rex?”

“...yes?”

Owen’s mouth fell open, “Oh my God, can I come?”

She briefly considered making some sort of joke at his expense but she was much too tired and he was much too endearing, “Sure. Get settled, and I’ll come get you before I leave.”

***

Claire let Owen stand at the end of the skywalk while she walked up and down, talking about how fast Alice could run and high she could jump, how much she needed to eat every day and how many teeth she had. At one point, he was gripping the rail so tight that she thought it might break. When Claire had asked Alice to say hello to the visitors watching in the booth and she had gone up to the glass, he let out a noise so loud that some of the parents were glancing around the observation booth, looking confused.

Afterwards, he pressed his face right up to the glass, after all the guests had left, and just watched the leaves rustle with her every movement, even when he couldn’t see her through the foliage. Claire left him to it.

***

_**June 2005** _

Owen still sometimes came to watch Alice’s shows when he was free. He’d sit on the side and watch in quiet awe, his fascination never any less amusing to Claire, or any of the other staff. When he asked to sit on her display for the King’s College class, she agreed.

It wasn’t until halfway through that she realised that he’d snuck a camera in, and when the shutter sound echoed through the demonstration, the flash making Alice turn around so quickly that she almost stumbled, that she realised his ulterior motive.

Through the window, she could see all the students scribbling furiously on their notepads.

While they were all distracted, she threw her middle finger up at Owen, who only laughed harder.

***

_**September 2005** _

Owen’s two raptors, Blue and Delta, were growing at a rapid rate. Only two of the original five eggs survived the first few weeks, much to his upset, but the ones that made it were strong, and fast. According to Owen, their teeth and claws were pretty sharp too.

Eddie, one of the chefs who worked on the plaza, let out a low whistle as Owen walked in the staff room, “Jesus, Grady. You thought about feeding them before you get in the cage?”

Owen grimaced, a particularly nasty cut along his jawline bleeding through the bandaging he had pressed to it. He usually had tens of little cuts and grazes on his hands and forearms where his raptors had nicked the skin through the protective gear, but he’d never got a scratch like that.

“Not her fault,” he grated out, wincing, “One of the security doors slammed and it spooked Delta, she just kinda… jumped.”

Claire shivered, “The big claw get you?”

“Nail on the head,” he nodded.

“You’re lucky,” she said, tilting his head to the side to get a better look, “A few more inches down and she would have gone right through your neck.”

“I’m fine,” he shrugged, shaking her off, “She didn’t mean no harm.” Keeping the gauze pressed to his jaw with his shoulder, he poured himself a cup of coffee and got a packet of chips out the cupboard. When he caught everyone staring at him incredulously, he just shook his head and laughed.

 

 


	4. this world of white fire and raging flood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire takes a week off. Owen gets a video camera.

**_March 2006_ **

“We should go on a date.”

Claire jumped, almost knocking over a pile of files that she was searching through. Owen was leaning up against the wall, covered in dirt, several holes torn in the fabric of his shirt.

It wasn’t the first time he had asked; he had developed a sort of hobby for inviting her out for drinks or dinner at the most inconvenient or random times, to the point that Claire had started to wonder if he was purposefully trying to limit the chance that she would accept and was just doing it out of some kind of pity for her dwindling social life. And every time, Claire politely declined. 

Each time, he would pout and shake his head, saunter away moaning about his shattered heart and Claire would wonder why she was saying no. Owen was attractive, intelligent, funny, not completely obnoxiously boisterous. It was true that dating someone from work was always a difficult business, and if it went wrong, it could be potentially very awkward, but the pros seemed to far outweigh the cons.

“Dare I even ask what you have planned for this one?”

He grinned, “Nope.”

Claire glanced up suspiciously, “No?”

Owen looked very proud of himself, “No, no plan. I’m leaving it entirely up to you.”

Owen’s dates usually came in the form of some highly exciting activity that no one would ever consider appropriate for a first date, like go-karting, or racing around the plains on quad bikes at night. On one memorable day, he had offered to give her a surfing lesson.

“So,” she said slowly, “you’re taking me out, but I have to plan it.”

“Figured the problem was you never liked any of my plans,” he shrugged, “so, you do the plan, I supply the good company, badda-bing, badda-boom, what’s the issue?”

Claire pursed her lips to try and refrain from smiling, “The issue, Owen, is that when I finish up here, I’m going home to my sister’s, so unless you’re amenable to going for dinner in Franklin, I’m afraid there is a very serious dent in our plans.”

His teasing smile fell almost immediately, “Wait, what? You’re leaving?”

“Yes-”

“But, you can’t,” he said instantly, almost shockingly serious, face dead set in a way that she didn’t think she had seen in the months that she had known him, “You can’t just up and  _ leave _ , the program can’t just change like that, you of all people know how hard it is to get Alice to listen to anyone who isn’t you-”

“Owen,” she interrupted firmly, “Be quiet. I’m only going to be gone for a week.”

There were a few seconds where he seemingly was completely lost for words - another thing Claire could not recall seeing before - mouth slightly open, before he recollected himself and his features quickly rearranged, “Well, good, because you’re a damn workaholic and you need to take a break. Jesus, why are you still here?”

Sighing fondly, Claire picked up the three files she needed, and turned to walk away, “Bye, Owen.”

“Hey, maybe when you get back we can go on that date!”

“Bye, Owen!”

“Take a week off to think about it!”

***

Scott and Karen Mitchell were the epitome of domestic bliss, to the point of surreality. Their three-story New Hampshire home always smelled like flowers and home baking and clean laundry, the walls adorned with school photos, holiday snaps, and finger paintings, and they even had a friendly golden retriever called, of all things, Sammy. 

Claire, who had lived out her phase as the rebellious younger sibling to its full extent, right until her second year of college, always felt a little out of place stood in the hall of their perfect American Dream home. While Claire had been skipping class right into her twenties, Karen had already met Scott, and anyone with half a brain could hear the wedding bells. Even after Claire had pulled her act together and got herself completely on track, she’d never achieved the level of harmony that her older sister had.

“Aunt Claire!” 

Her two nephews caught her around the middle. Zach was the first to pull away, nine years old and already tall, a shock of almost black hair and black eyes. It had been four years since she last saw him, yet he hardly seemed to have changed. Gray, who she hadn’t met more than twice in his lifetime, clung on to her even longer. 

“Hello, you two,” she beamed, hugging them back, because even if she didn’t see them every often, Claire loved both of them. 

“Boys,” Karen chided lightly from across the hall, “Let your aunt breathe.”

It had been four years since Claire had seen her sister, but she had barely changed. She was still the spitting image of their mother, blonde and pale and soft. On the surface, Claire and Karen were quite similar, but it belied their differences.

It never changed the fact that, even after a long separation, they were still so close, “God, I’ve missed you,” Karen hugged her tightly around the middle, squeezing her.

“I know,” Claire groaned, returning the affection, “I never meant to be away so long.”

“C’mon,” Karen said, pulling away a little, “Coffee pot’s on, you look like you could use the caffeine.”

***

A world away, Owen slumped on the floor of the raptor pen, bruised and battered and tired, covered in another thousand little cuts that would no doubt scar, but still grinning. The latest marketing ploy from upper management was to arm every handler with a video camera and have them make video blogs about dealing with the assets on a day to day basis.

Since the raptors weren’t part of the park yet - their full time enclosure would be a true fortress, no one was taking risks like last time - Owen had pretty much free reign over what he shot and posted to the web department to put online. Him and his new team worker, Barry, had been trying to get some footage of their girls learning new commands, but they were more interested in the bucket of treats he had, and climbing up his leg to get to them rather than earning them.

So, bleeding and, to his embarrassment, slightly out of breath, Owen sat on the floor, and allowed the three girls to climb into his lap. Blue, larger than her sisters by a considerable amount being the only one that survived from the first nest, contented herself with a dead rat, perched on his thigh. Charlie and Echo, twins, only a few months old, settled against his stomach, Charlie’s claws dangerously close to his groin. Owen knew better than to tempt fate by moving her, though.

Barry continued laughing as he filmed, “Well, not a productive lesson but I’ve got some great shots of you all cuddling.”

Owen only just avoided the temptation to stick his middle finger up at the camera, “Put a cork in it.”

“Honestly, it’s very sweet-”

“Shut it, Barry.”

As much as he complained, Owen knew Barry would still e-mail him all the footage he’d shot that day, because Owen loved his girls. There was a folder on his laptop with every photo and video clip of them as they’d grown up taken; he even had a great shot on Blue perched on his shoulder at only a week old hung up in his bungalow. 

A lot of the crew liked to make fun of it, but Barry never did, which is half the reason Owen liked him so much. A lot of raptors hadn’t made it past a few weeks old, and Owen knew his partner honoured every single one. It raised him in Owen’s esteem greatly. 

A few hours and several bandages later, he sat back in his little house by the lake - it had taken weeks of planning permission from HR and he had a whole folder of paper detailing the restraints on it but he’d finally moved out of the God awful, copy-and-paste apartments on the park - and sent an e-mail of his own.

***

Claire had taken her work laptop with her to her sister’s, just so she could keep an eye on things while she was away. When it pinged, she opened an email from Owen.

To:  [](mailto:cdearing@jurassicworld.org) cdearing@jurassicworld.org   
From: ogrady@jurassicworld.org   
Subject: Say Hello

What a time to fuck off to East Jesus nowhere, they just gave us all cameras and they’re letting us shoot video for the website. Me and Barry have been having a great time with it, but in your absence, someone had to brave your moody cow.

Send a picture back, Alice has forgotten what you look like, try not to include any pictures of the cold though, I’ll go into shock

Owen

 

Claire rolled her eyes - she’d got the memo about shooting video as well - but opened the first attachment. It was a picture of Owen and Barry stood in the t-rex observation room which it looked like Barry had taken, Alice visible in the shot behind them, what looked like a goat’s leg hanging out her mouth. Claire tried not to groan at the prospect that Owen had been overfeeding her t-rex just to get pictures of her, but saved the image anyway.

The next attachment was a video, which Owen greeted her loudly from, out of shot.

“ _ Thought I’d get some exclusive, behind the scenes footage of a t-rex in action- ah, there she is- _ ”

It looked like he was stood on the skywalk above the exhibit, and Alice was walking closer, probably quite irritated that some asshole with a video camera was making so much noise at such an early hour in her pen.

“ _ Alice… Alice, c’mon, this way, _ ” The tyrannosaurs stubbornly refused to look at the camera, instead much more interested in the birds nested in one of the trees, “ _ Alice! _ ” Owen banged on the rail with the flat of his hand, finally garnering her interest.

“ _ C’mon girl, say hello! _ ”

‘Say Hello’ was one of the first things Claire had taught Alice - she used it at the start of her talks, after she’d coax her over to the observation room, she’d ask her to ‘say hello’, and Alice would roar. 

Unless Owen was asking.

“ _ Alice, don’t be so damn rude, say hello _ .”

Alice remained completely silent, staring at Owen. If she’d been human, Claire suspected she would have been suppressing laughter, or at the very least, wearing a shit-eating grin.

“ _ Say hello, Alice, say he _ -” 

She cut him off by finally answering the command, which Owen was apparently not expecting, given the way he seemed to stumble backwards a little and let out an inventive string of swear words. Behind him, also out of shot, was the sound of someone laughing.

“ _ Fuck off, Barry- shit, can we not swear on these? _ ”

“ _ No, Owen, it’s for the website. _ ”

“ _ Fuck’s sake- _ ” he complained, before throwing a hunk of meat into the pen, “ _ Atta girl, ruined all my footage _ .”

The video cut off, and by the end, Claire’s face hurt with smiling. The last frame stared her straight in the face, Alice looking right into the camera. Four years of caring for and teaching the t-rex, and Claire had never actually realised how much she’d miss her. It seemed ridiculous, but she could hardly argue with the sinking feeling in her stomach.

There was another video attached, and Claire could barely imagine what it contained as it loaded up, only to find a full three minutes of what seemed to be Owen sat on the floor, covered in small raptors.

“ _ Barry… Barry, stop laughing and get down here with me- Shut up and put the camera down _ ,” Claire watched as Blue, the largest, clawed her way up Owen’s arm and jumped on his head. She squawked quite triumphantly at her sisters. One of the smaller ones, Charlie, she thought, desperately tried to reach her big sister by throwing herself at Owen’s shoulders. Owen yelped as Charlie’s extended claw nipped him in the chest, blood already slowly blooming across his shirt. A gloved hand appeared in the frame to move her down to the floor.

“ _ Great timing, Barry _ ,” Owen grunted, rubbing at the wound. Charlie, at least, seemed to understand her mistake and was making softer noises at her handler, her tail down.

“ _ She says sorry _ ,” Barry replied, obviously laughing.

Claire paused the video, taking a moment to shake her head at the boys. Her sister was calling her downstairs, something about planning for dinner. She shut her laptop.

***

The rest of the trip flew by in a flurry of family dinners and days out and late night dog walks with her nephews. Both boys were full of questions about her work, even if Zach’s were a little easier to answer. Gray’s were characterised by a child’s faith in any adult’s intelligence, and a creativity that most of the lab techs could only dream of. It was a simple time.

There were tears from both sisters at the airport where Claire left to go back to her bland apartment, where the only home cooking came in the form on instant noodles and there was no golden retriever to make cow eyes at her while she eat. It was a cruel reminder of exactly what she had sacrificed. For a brief moment, she thought of Owen, who brought her any leftovers he had from the weekends when him and Barry would cook mountains of food because he knew she was too lazy to cook on her days off. Who sent her updates on Alice while she was away. Who introduced her to his brother when he came to visit just like real friends do, not just work friends. She tried to imagine something like what her sister had with Scott, with Owen. A house and a pet and a future, but it felt fake and lifeless.

Her job was time consuming and difficult and there wasn’t exactly masses of dating opportunities on a small Costa Rican island. She’d known the risk when she’d taken the job - it was the very definition of non-social hours. If she really thought about it, she knew it had never bothered her because she’d had her hands full. It was just the time off, the chance of stop being so  _ busy _ all the time. It gave her time to think.

It had absolutely nothing to do with spending less time with Alice. And if it was a lie, there was no one around to call her out on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit, it's been a while. I can't promise that this is exactly how I want this chapter to be but I was so happy to get it finished that I didn't care!! I've been trying to get back into this story for months, and I finally got my muse back!!! Hopefully, chapter 5 won't take so long.


End file.
